President Bush said Tuesday that Americans will now be able to "Google their tax dollars," as he signed a law to create an online database for tracking about $1 trillion in government spending on grants and contracts. The law is aimed at preventing wasteful spending by opening the federal budget to greater scrutiny. The information is already available, but the Web site would make it easier for those who aren't experts on the process to see how taxpayer dollars are being spent. "Information on earmarks will no longer be hidden deep in the pages of a federal budget bill, but just a few clicks away," Mr. Bush said in a signing ceremony. "This legislation will give the American people a new tool to hold their government accountable for spending decisions. When those decisions are made in broad daylight, they will be wiser and they will be more restrained." ... http://www.cbsnews.com

A dispute that began over the capture of an opossum in a residential neighborhood ended with police shooting a Rottweiler and arresting a man after stunning him with a Taser gun. A fight broke out in the Talmadge area of San Diego after a resident saw a large opossum running in the area Tuesday and asked a maintenance worker to corral the feral animal, prompting a call to police. An officer at the scene shot a Taser gun at one man who became combative, according to police reports. The man removed the barbs and fled through a neighboring yard, where a Rottweiler allegedly came at the officer. The officer fired several shots in self-defense, police said. The man was found and arrested a short time later. Police said they were evaluating him for being under the influence. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2495861

At least seven men in five states have been fatally electrocuted since July while hacking through power lines to steal wire made of copper, which has been commanding near-record prices, police say."It is a growing problem with the rise in the price of metals," says Lt. Shea Smith of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina. Smith says one thief died Aug. 30 and another July 7. Both were found with wire cutters and other tools that suggested their intent. He says at least 30 more copper thefts have occurred in the county so far this year.Nationwide, police report copper thieves stealing wires from air conditioning units, exposed pipes from underneath homes, vases from graveyards in Sumter, S.C., and bells from a church in Yonkers, N.Y. "It's surprising to find two deaths in such a short time frame," Shea says. "Most people who steal copper find the easiest way to do it," such as taking it from a construction site. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-26-copper-theft_x.htm?csp=34

An elderly woman from the East Coast roams the Arizona desert in search of her land. She's looking for a tidy lot in a subdivision and instead finds an arid wasteland in the middle of nowhere. She gets lost, runs out of gas and water and has to be rescued by a rancher.She had bought the land on the Internet, sight unseen, according to Mary Utley, spokeswoman with the Arizona Department of Real Estate. The Internet is reviving a grand old American tradition: land scams. Thousands of lots in phantom subdivisions that were sold decades ago to people who hoped to build retirement homes in warm states are reappearing on online sites such as the Internet giant eBay.The new wave of land scams has the potential to snooker millions more around the world because of the Internet's broad and instantaneous reach....http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-09-26-land-scams_x.htm?csp=34

After a bloody summer in Afghanistan, the country now seems to be facing a bloody autumn. SPIEGEL spoke with US Ambassador Ronald Neumann, 61, about the growing Taliban presence, the need for more international support, and how dangerous it would be to give up. SPIEGEL: Mr. Ambassador, since January you have managed to escape two separate attacks uninjured. Did those personal experiences change your perception of the security situation? Neumann: No, this is the fourth war in my diplomatic career. I have had my embassy attacked by a mob, I have lived through assassination threats. But the evaluation of a situation depends on facts, not on emotional responses. It's a difficult situation but it's in much better shape than Iraq. SPIEGEL: So, there is no heliport in case of an emergency? Neumann: There are 20,000 American troops in this country. We are not going to evacuate, we are not going anywhere...http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,439270,00.html

Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are the world’s most competitive economies according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007, released by the World Economic Forum on 26 September 2006. Denmark, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom complete the top ten list, but the United States shows the most pronounced drop, falling from first to sixth. The rankings are drawn from a combination of publicly available hard data and the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the Report. This year, over 11,000 business leaders were polled in a record 125 economies worldwide....http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm